Vijayanta
Contents
Description
The Vijayanta (विजयंता; lit. Victorious) was the first MBT built in India as the licensed variant of the British Vickers Mk.1. As the export tank designed by the Vickers-Armstrong, Vickers Mk.1 were designed to be a lighter yet as powerful medium tank as the Centurion series in British service; the design of this tank was acquired by India in 1961 and development soon started in UK. The development was completed by 1964 with a prototype delivered to India and joined the Indian Army a year later under the name Vijayanta. The tank was saw in action during the Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971 and Indo-Pakistan War of 1999; although planned for decommission by 2008, the introduction of Russian-built/licensed MBTs and complications on the domestic Arjun MBT however didn't fully phrase-out all Vijayanta with were still spotted as late as 2019, serving as batteries for border troops.
Introduced in Update "La Royale" as a premium British medium tank, the Vijayanta is essentially a Vickers Mk.1 with M456 105 mm HEAT-FS, other than the additional ammunition option, both tanks can be utilize with same tactics as a supporting tank while players have to pay extra caution to avoid frontline battles at all cost since the protection is rather poor for its tier.
General info
Survivability and armour
A short answer to the protection of Vijayanta: it is totally identical to Vickers Mk.1. As Vickers Mk.1 was designed to be the alternative to the fleet of Centurion tanks in British and overseas services, the main design feature was retaining the same firepower as the post-Mk.10 Centurions while having better mobility thanks to its lighter weight; but lighter weight also means lesser protection. The later variants of Centurion has around 240 mm RHA on UFP - for Vijayanta, it's less than half of Centurions (barely over 100 mm RHA); at its tier where APFSDS and HEATFS are very commonplace, it can be said that chances of non-penetration or ricochet is very minimal.
For the internal layout, like Vickers Mk.1, the crews are rather cramped and three of them are on the same axis by the right side (from Vijayanta's PoV), the problem is further worsen due to the ammunition layout of the tank (up to 25 shells up front, next to the driver); any penetrated shots at the center-mass or from the right side will very like knock down the tank right away, if not detonate right away (at full load). So staying behind the lines to maximize its survivability while helping the team to take out enemy targets.
Armour type:
- Rolled homogeneous armour (Hull, Turret roof)
- Cast homogeneous armour (Turret)
Armour | Front (Slope angle) | Sides | Rear | Roof |
---|---|---|---|---|
Hull | 60 mm (56°) Front glacis
80 mm (32°) Lower glacis |
30 mm Top
30 + 4 mm Bottom |
20 mm (4-5°) Top
19 mm (58°) |
25 mm
5 mm Grills |
Turret | 80 mm (19°) Turret front
40-100 mm (1-73°) Gun mantlet |
40-60 mm (1-17°) | 40 mm (10°)
60 mm (1°) Turret ring |
25 mm |
Notes:
- Suspension wheels and tracks are 20 mm thick.
Mobility
Thanks to the lighter chassis, it can be said that Vijayanta traded its protection for far better mobility than the Centurion series. It can go as "fast" as 48 km/h while still retains similar reverse at 11.1 km/h; while it is nowhere comparable to Warsaw-Pact and most other NATO tanks (any but M48 and M60 series), it does give Vijayanta more flexibility than Centurion.
Game Mode | Max Speed (km/h) | Weight (tons) | Engine power (horsepower) | Power-to-weight ratio (hp/ton) | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Forward | Reverse | Stock | Upgraded | Stock | Upgraded | ||
Arcade | 54 | 13 | 38.1 | 942 | 1,160 | 24.72 | 30.45 |
Realistic | 49 | 12 | 538 | 608 | 14.12 | 15.96 |
Modifications and economy
Armaments
Main armament
105 mm Royal Ordnance L7A1 | Turret rotation speed (°/s) | Reloading rate (seconds) | |||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Mode | Capacity | Vertical | Horizontal | Stabilizer | Stock | Upgraded | Full | Expert | Aced | Stock | Full | Expert | Aced |
Arcade | 44 | -7°/+20° | ±180° | Two-plane | 26.4 | 36.5 | 44.3 | 49.0 | 52.2 | 6.50 | 5.75 | 5.30 | 5.00 |
Realistic | 16.5 | 19.4 | 23.5 | 26.0 | 27.7 |
Ammunition
Penetration statistics | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Ammunition | Type of warhead |
Penetration @ 0° Angle of Attack (mm) | |||||
10 m | 100 m | 500 m | 1,000 m | 1,500 m | 2,000 m | ||
M728 | APDS | 265 | 263 | 252 | 240 | 228 | 216 |
Shell L35 | HESH | 127 | 127 | 127 | 127 | 127 | 127 |
M456 | HEATFS | 400 | 400 | 400 | 400 | 400 | 400 |
Shell details | ||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Ammunition | Type of warhead |
Velocity (m/s) |
Projectile mass (kg) |
Fuse delay (m) |
Fuse sensitivity (mm) |
Explosive mass (TNT equivalent) (kg) |
Ricochet | |||||
0% | 50% | 100% | ||||||||||
M728 | APDS | 1,426 | 4.53 | - | - | - | 75° | 78° | 80° | |||
Shell L35 | HESH | 720 | 11.4 | 0.1 | 4 | 3.15 | 73° | 77° | 80° | |||
M456 | HEATFS | 1,174 | 10.5 | 0.05 | 0.1 | 1.27 | 65° | 72° | 77° |
Ammo racks
Full ammo |
1st rack empty |
2nd rack empty |
3rd rack empty |
4th rack empty |
5th rack empty |
6th rack empty |
Visual discrepancy |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
44 | __ (+__) | __ (+__) | __ (+__) | __ (+__) | __ (+__) | __ (+__) | __ |
Additional armament
12.7 mm L21A1 | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Mount | Capacity (Belt) | Fire rate | Vertical | Horizontal |
Coaxial | 600 (3) | 300 | - | - |
Machine guns
7.62 mm L3A1 | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Mount | Capacity (Belt) | Fire rate | Vertical | Horizontal |
Coaxial | 3,000 (250) | 500 | - | - |
7.62 mm L37A1 | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Mount | Capacity (Belt) | Fire rate | Vertical | Horizontal |
Pintle | 1,000 (100) | 650 | -10°/+30° | ±60° |
Usage in battles
Describe the tactics of playing in the vehicle, the features of using vehicles in the team and advice on tactics. Refrain from creating a "guide" - do not impose a single point of view but instead give the reader food for thought. Describe the most dangerous enemies and give recommendations on fighting them. If necessary, note the specifics of the game in different modes (AB, RB, SB).
Pros and cons
Pros:
- 5 second reload with max crew
- Two-plane stabilizer
- 3 machine guns (2 x 7.62 mm & 1 x 12.7 mm) with one on the roof
- An effective HEAT shell with a relatively high muzzle velocity
- Access to APDS and HESH as well
- Above average speed in comparison to some other British tanks thanks to lighter weight
Cons:
- Poor armour all around, front armour is only good against autocannons
- Lacks the speed to keep up with NATO/Warsaw-Pact counterparts
- Only -7° of gun depression compared to the more common -10°
- The coaxial 12.7 mm machine gun is meant for rangefinding and has only 7 mm of penetration
- The roof machine gun is only 7.62 mm
- Ammo rack in the front right next to the driver
- Slow gun elevation speed affects gun handling
History
Describe the history of the creation and combat usage of the vehicle in more detail than in the introduction. If the historical reference turns out to be too long, take it to a separate article, taking a link to the article about the vehicle and adding a block "/History" (example: https://wiki.warthunder.com/(Vehicle-name)/History) and add a link to it here using the main
template. Be sure to reference text and sources by using <ref></ref>
, as well as adding them at the end of the article with <references />
. This section may also include the vehicle's dev blog entry (if applicable) and the in-game encyclopedia description (under === In-game description ===
, also if applicable).
Media
Excellent additions to the article would be video guides, screenshots from the game, and photos.
See also
Links to the articles on the War Thunder Wiki that you think will be useful for the reader, for example:
- reference to the series of the vehicles;
- links to approximate analogues of other nations and research trees.
External links
Britain medium tanks | |
---|---|
Valentine | Valentine I · Valentine IX · Valentine XI |
Cromwell | Cromwell I · Cromwell V · Cromwell V (RP-3) |
Cromwell derivatives | Challenger · Avenger · Comet I · Comet I "Iron Duke IV" · Charioteer Mk VII |
Centurion | Centurion Mk 1 · Centurion Mk.2 · Centurion Mk 3 · Centurion Mk.5 AVRE · Centurion Mk 10 · Centurion Action X · FV4202 |
Vickers MBT | Vickers Mk.1 · Vickers Mk.3 · Vickers Mk.7 |
Chieftain | Chieftain Mk 3 · Chieftain Mk 5 · Chieftain Mk 10 |
Challenger 1 | Challenger Mk.2 · Challenger Mk.3 · Challenger DS |
Challenger 2 | Challenger 2 · Challenger 2 (2F) · Challenger 2 TES · Challenger 2 OES · Challenger 2E · Challenger 2 Black Night |
Challenger 3 | Challenger 3 TD |
Australia | A.C.I · A.C.IV · Centurion Mk.5/1 |
South Africa | Olifant Mk.1A · Olifant Mk.2 · TTD |
India | Vijayanta · Bhishma TWMP |
Israel | ▄Sho't Kal Dalet |
Jordan | Khalid |
Sweden | ▄Strv 81 (RB 52) |
USA | Grant I · Sherman II · Sherman Firefly · Sherman IC "Trzyniec" |
Britain premium ground vehicles | |
---|---|
Light tanks | A13 Mk I (3rd R.T.R.) · A13 Mk II 1939 · AEC Mk II · Crusader "The Saint" · Rooikat 105 |
Medium tanks | A.C.I · Grant I · Cromwell V (RP-3) · Sherman IC "Trzyniec" · A.C.IV · Comet I "Iron Duke IV" |
Centurion Mk.2 · ▄Strv 81 (RB 52) · Centurion Mk.5 AVRE · Centurion Mk.5/1 · ▄Sho't Kal Dalet · Centurion Action X | |
Vijayanta · Khalid · Challenger DS · Challenger 2 OES | |
Heavy tanks | Independent · Matilda Hedgehog · Excelsior · TOG II · Churchill Crocodile · Black Prince |
Tank destroyers | Alecto I · Achilles (65 Rg.) · QF 3.7 Ram |